Pai Gow is a well known gambling game originating in China. Pai Gow is played with a set of thirty-two tiles, each of which includes a number of pips indicating the rank of the tile. For reasons of tradition, the rank of the tile is not directly related to the number of pips on the tile, that is, more pips does not necessarily translate to a higher rank. For example, a tile with twelve pips is the highest ranking tile; a tile with three pips is the lowest ranking tile. Similarly, the rank of a combination of tiles is not directly related to the sum of the pips on the tile. For example, one high ranking pair, the Gee Joon, or Supreme Pair, comprises a tile with six pips and a tile with three pips.
A game of Pai Gow begins with the players making a wager. The game of Pai Gow may be house banked or a player may choose to act as the banker. A dealer separates the thirty two tiles into eight piles of four tiles each. Three dice are rolled to determine the distribution of the tile hands. The tile hands are distributed to the players and the dealer. Each player organizes his or her tiles into a two-tile high hand and a two-tile low hand. The low hand must not have a higher ranking than the high hand according to the conventional ranking of Pai Gow tiles. If the tiles are incorrectly arranged, the player automatically loses The player positions his or her tiles on the playing surface with the two-tile low hand in front of the two-tile high hand.
The dealer reveals his or her tiles and likewise organizes the four tiles into a two-tile high hand and a two-tile low hand Wagers are resolved by comparing the rank of the player's high hand and low hand to the dealer's high hand and low hand, respectively. If the player's high and low hands outrank the dealer's high and low hands, respectively, the player wins and is paid even money, less a five percent (5%) commission to the casino. If the dealer's high and low hands outrank or tie the player's high and low hands, respectively, the dealer collects the player's wager. If one, but not both, of the player's hands outrank the one of the dealer's hands, the game is a push and the wager is neither, collected nor paid.
One drawback of Pai Gow is the commission charged on winning wagers. To maintain a house advantage sufficient to make Pai Gow tables profitable, it has been found that a five percent commission is necessary. However, the commission charged must be tracked by the dealer and each player must periodically settle his commission owed during play. The time required to track and settle commissions often result in a loss of revenue because fewer hands can be dealt per unit of time. Additionally, the conventional five percent commission often results in a fractional amount that is often lost because of the denominations used at gaming tables. For example, on a twenty-five dollar wager, the house usually collects a one dollar commission rather than the one dollar and twenty-five cents owed to avoid the cumbersome tracking of small denomination coins. As can be seen, this results in a loss of twenty percent of the commission owed to the house.
In the game of Pai Gow Poker, one game intended to address the problem of house commissions is the so-called “no push” Pai Gow Poker. In conventional Pai Gow Poker, seven cards are dealt to the banker and the players. The banker and players arrange the cards into a five-card high hand and a two-card low hand. Each player compares his or her high hand to the banker's high hand and his or her low hand to the banker's low hand. The player wins if both hands outrank the corresponding banker's hands according to conventional poker rankings. If one of the player's hands outranks one of the banker's hands, and the other banker's hand ties or outranks the other player hand, the player and banker “push” and the player neither wins nor loses his wager. If both the banker's hands outrank or tie the player's hands, the player loses his or her wager in the “no push” version of Pai Gow Poker, the commission can be eliminated because, unlike conventional Pai Gow Poker, a tie-breaker is instituted to eliminate all pushes. The, is, if a push exists, the push is resolved using a card or die to determine whether the player or dealer wins the player's wager.
The drawback to this game is that many players prefer the availability of the push outcome because a push results in no loss and extends the player's playing time and bankroll. In other words, players dislike the tie-breaker instituted in the “no push” version of Pai Gow Poker because players could still lose their wager even if there is a push. This is significant because the player's hand and the dealer's hand will push approximately 40% of the time in the game of Pai Gow Poker. The probability that the player and dealer cards will tie is 5.9506%. Thus, the player of “no push” Pai Gow Poker can expect to lose an additional 2.38% of the time due to the tiebreaker (40% * 5.9506%=2.38%). This is in addition to the inherent ˜1% house advantage resulting from the house winning all identical hands.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need in the art for a Pai Gow method that eliminates the commission on winning wagers.